The Fellowship of Lifea Christian-based vegetarian group founded in 1973

|

Letters

Animal welfare: a Christian response

Sir, - I do understand why there is a shocked silence when a parson's
wife says she is more interested in trying to save some of the last few
thousand rhinos surviving in the world than in sustaining an
overabundance of human beings; or when she shows sympathy with vampire
bats who kill three people in Brazil following the destruction of their
habitat.

Is it not, however, time that practising Christians voiced more
strongly their belief that God created all living things?

With few exceptions church services encourage us to think of the
needs of people. We pray for the sick, the old, the lonely, the
bereaved, the hungry, the homeless. Even on "Sea Sunday" we pray for the
safety of all people who use the sea without a mention of our
responsibility towards life within the sea. Particularly amongst the
young there is a feeling that the Church should be in the forefront of
efforts to reverse the age-old belief that we have a right "to conquer
the earth and subdue it".